Paradigm Precision signs legally binding agreement to protect staff from harassment and discrimination

The Manchester employment tribunal ruled Peter Allen, who worked as a quality manager for aerospace component manufacturer Paradigm Precision, was harassed and directly discriminated against because of his sexual orientation.

It also found he was victimised and that he was subjected to detrimental treatment for seeking to take additional adoption leave. All this contributed to Allen being constructively unfairly dismissed.

It is a breach of the Equality Act 2020 to discriminate against anyone because of their sexual orientation.

We can enter into a formal agreement with a person or organisation that we believe has committed an unlawful act. By entering into an agreement, the person or organisation agrees not to commit an unlawful act. As such, it is often an effective alternative to other formal enforcement action.

Agreements can be entered into without a formal investigation and involve putting an action plan in place. It’s important to note that by agreeing to an action plan, however, the individual or organisation is not admitting that there has been an unlawful act.

The agreement secured commits Paradigm Precision Burnley to carrying out an action plan to improve its approach to equality and diversity, including steps such as:

• Rolling out updated equality and diversity training to all staff and providing enhanced equality training to the Senior Leadership and Human Resources team;
• Revising its induction materials for new staff to ensure they understand expected standards of behaviour;
• Publicising and monitoring the staff hotline to ensure staff are aware they can use it to make confidential complaints;
• Appointing equality & diversity champions within key areas of its business and conducting regular reviews with them to monitor any emerging issues of concern.

Following the agreement being signed, we will now monitor Paradigm Precision Burnley throughout the period of the agreement to ensure all the agreed actions are carried out.